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Grantourismo travel blogging contest launches

Submit a post on your travel experiences for a chance to win holidays & more

In 2010, globetrotting travel writers Lara Dunston and Terry Carter, in partnership with HomeAway Holiday-Rentals, are swapping hotel rooms for holiday homes in a contemporary grand tour of sorts they’re calling Grantourismo. Their aim is to discover a more enriching and authentic way to travel and they are chronicling their experiences on the blog, grantourismotravels.com. As part of the project and to get other travellers involved, the duo are pleased to announce the first in a series of yearlong competitions where they invite budding and experienced writers alike to submit posts about their own travel experiences.

All entrants need to do is to create an inspiring blog post, consisting of a 500-word piece of evocative travel writing and one compelling photograph that motivates people to:

Explore more authentic and enriching ways to travel

Get beneath the skin of a place when they travel

Learn to live like locals

Travel more slowly and more sustainably, and/or

Give something back to the places they visit.

Each month a different Grantourismo blog category will be announced by Lara and Terry and the post must fit into that category.

The winning entries will be featured on the Grantourismo blog, the HomeAway UK Facebook page and be promoted on Twitter.

The category for March is The ’Hood. Posts in this category explore everyday neighbourhoods and the people who live in them, the idea being to inspire people to get out of the tourist zone and off the beaten track, to get an insight into everyday life, and to interact with locals.

For more information, terms and conditions and how to enter read Lara’s post on the Grantourismo blog here.

What is the Grantourismo Project? It is HomeAway Holiday-Rentals’ mission, along with Lara and Terry, to help more people discover the unique and liberating way of travelling that is renting a real ‘home’ instead of staying just another identikit hotel. In 2010, company is sending Lara and Terry around the world in holiday homes so they can chronicle their experiences and share them as they go, showing travellers a new way to travel and discover the world.

Prizes for the blogging contest include:

FIRST PRIZE A stay at a HomeAway Holiday-Rentals property of your choice anywhere in the world valued at UK£500 (US$750) and a Viator tour voucher worth US$150